Tim Worstall

Alan Johnson told us that the display of tobacco products will be banned. It worked in Iceland at reducing teenage smoking rates so it will work here.
Hmm. Gosh, I wonder if the statistics hold up there?
Umm. No.
The statistics don’t hold up. Such a surprise, eh? Government Minister lying to the public. Big news, eh?
Teenage smoking [...]

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The snack vans, often found in busy lay-bys, must now offer soup, salads or low fat yogurts with their artery-clogging kebabs.
They must also limit the amount of mayonnaise served - because it has been branded a "very high fat product".
Environmental health officers will inspect menus during routine hygiene checks.
And traders who fail to meet the [...]

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Karl Walker was told by a cleaning firm that he is not old enough to use hot water, washing up liquid and furniture polish or to empty bins.
The AS-level student and a friend were hired by Apollo Cleaning and worked in offices in Chippenham, Wiltshire, for a week until a regional manager ordered them to [...]

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A father described yesterday how he was nearly swept to his death trying to rescue a girl at a beach where a coastguard crew were forbidden from launching their boat.
Lee Dobson, 35, told The Times that he and two other men had been in danger of drowning after going to the aid of a teenage [...]

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Pretty please? I’ll even provide the lamp post if necessary:

A volunteer coastguard crew face disciplinary action after going to the rescue of a teenage swimmer in a boat that had recently been repaired and was awaiting a seaworthiness inspection.
The four crewmen were on duty at Hope Cove in South Devon when the 15-year-old girl was [...]

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A self-employed painter and decorator has been given a £30 on-the-spot fine for smoking in his own van because it is classified as a workplace.
Gordon Williams, 58, went out to buy some teabags for his wife when he was stopped as part of a roadside check by council officials.
Moments earlier he had lit a cigarette [...]

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The Government’s top doctor said England should follow Europe and America and ban teenage drivers from drinking any alcohol at all in order to prevent accidents.

Now it sounds as if such a ban should indeed help. Pass a law, everybody obeys it and Bob’s your parental sibling of choice.
However, [...]

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Hundreds of thousands of parents will be banned from ferrying children to sports matches next year unless they have had criminal records checks, under new rules.
The clampdown is part of an escalation in child protection policies which will see 11 million adults vetted before they come into contact with children or [...]

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A nice piece of banstubation here. We have the first part, a real tragedy:

Drivers have been given a stark warning of the dangers of hands-free mobile phone calls after a haulier was jailed for causing a fatal crash whilst talking on a Bluetooth headset.

Then we have the call for the ban:

Relatives of Mr Buston and [...]

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Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister, said: "Protecting children from smoking is a government priority and taking away temptation is one way to do this.
"If banning brightly coloured packets, removing cigarettes from display, and removing the cheap option of a pack of 10 helps save lives, [...]

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Leader in the Telegraph.

Yesterday, two things happened that may just start to turn that tide. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, announced that the Government was ignoring the advice of its own Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and will reclassify cannabis as a Class B drug - four years after it was downgraded to [...]

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Gordon Brown today gave his backing for cannabis to be reclassified as a more serious drug later this month in a move that will reverse its downgrading by his predecessor.

Sigh.
It’s all been based on a quite startling campaign of misinformation.

After becoming Prime Minister last June, Mr Brown ordered a formal review into the classification of [...]

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….makes USA Today.

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We’re going to end up like the Americans on this alcohol subject, you know? And that sort of hysteria isn’t a good thing.

Pregnant women are warned they should drink no alcohol at all despite no evidence the occasional glass is harmful.

And despite the odd glass being relaxing, something beneficial.
The hysteria in the US can [...]

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Actually reading the thing, whoo, boy, are these people confused!
More later.

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Thousands of lives a year could be saved by a small rise in alcohol prices, doctors’ leaders said yesterday as they put more pressure on Gordon Brown to tackle Britain’s binge-drinking "epidemic".
More than a quarter of all drink-related deaths could be prevented by a 10 per cent rise in taxes on beer, wine and spirits, [...]

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Looks like it’s not as bad as we are told:

The report uses data from the UK National Child Development Study, which provides details of mothers and their children between 1973 and 2000 — a total of 3,368 women and 6,860 children.
The information includes the mothers’ smoking habits, information about their families, and the birthweight and [...]

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You really do have to hand it to our MPs and Lords: knowing arses from elbows is clearly an advanced manouvre for them.

All artificial colourings in food and soft drinks should be banned, a parliamentary committee urged yesterday in a report on the effect of diet on the brain.
The associate parliamentary food and health forum [...]

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Patio heaters could be banned by the European Union over fears that they are contributing to global warming.
Euro-MPs will today vote on energy efficiency proposals to phase out the sale of the popular gas-burning appliances which are increasingly found outside bars, cafés and restaurants since the indoor smoking ban.
Fiona Hall, a Liberal Democrat MEP, has [...]

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